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Seattle Film and Music Blog

INTERVIEW: LYNN SHELTON, LOVER OF LOCAL MUSIC, DIRECTOR EXTRAORDINAIRE

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Seattle Times
In a dark room in the back of Easy Street Records in lower Queen Anne, local director Lynn Shelton (Humpday) explained what exactly she’s up to with “$5 Cover,” the series she’s currently directing for MTV that stars local musicians. It’ll be out next year. She hopes to finish filming and editing by Thanksgiving. Intended for release on the internet, and then possibly TV, the series will be 12 episodes, each six- to eight-minutes long, comprised of vignettes and performances. Collectively, the episodes present a single weekend in a borderline echelon of Seattle’s music scene where collaboration is rampant and concerts are intimate. Click the above link for the entire article from Matson on Music.

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CBS EMBEDS A VIDEO PLAYING AD IN A PRINT MAGAZINE

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Wired Magazine
In the latest example of finding media innovation where you’d least expect it, CBS is embedding a video player in a print ad in Entertainment Weekly that will serve up a buffet of its fall TV lineup. The CBS foray into a print-digital alliance plays full-motion video at a crisp resolution. The ad, dubbed by CBS and partner Pepsi Max “the first-ever VIP (video-in-print) promotion,” works like one of those audio greeting cards. Opening the page activates the player, which is a quarter-inch–thick screen seen through a cutaway between two pages concealing the larger circuit board underneath. The audio quality is equally good, but beware: There are no volume controls, and in a quiet environment, it’s quite loud. This is surely a intentional design feature, aimed at getting the attention of people nearby.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgJ6DA50thw&feature=player_embedded]

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LAST NIGHT/Q&A: MASSIVE MONKEES ON AMERICA’S BEST DANCE CREW

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Seattle Weeklymonkees
America’s Best Dance Crew, airing on MTV on Sunday nights, is the dance battle equivalent of American Idol, wherein a group of teams are tasked a challenge and compete each week to win a majority of audience votes via text message while being subjected to the feather-lashing critique of celebrity judges. Despite the glitzy production, the show features exciting and innovative dance collectives and this season’s groups appear to be the best yet, particularly because Seattle’s own internationally-acclaimed Massive Monkees are competing. Last Friday, Hollis Wong-Wear at the Seattle Weekly chatted with Jerome Aparis and Bryson Angeles of Massive Monkees on a conference call and asked them about the hula-hoop challenge and more about their experience performing on the show. To read the interview, click the above link.

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SUNDANCE CHANNEL UNVEILS VIDEO-ON-DEMAND SERVICE

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Hollywood Reporter
Cable television’s Sundance Channel on Monday unveiled a video-on-demand service offering documentaries and international films endorsed by Sundance festival founder Robert Redford and often available the same day the movies hit theaters. Sundance Selects will make its debut on August 26 with Spike Lee’s new documentary, Passing Strange: The Movie. The service will be available on cable TV systems owned by three major operators — Comcast Corp, Cox Communications and Cablevision Systems Corp. — reaching as many as 50 million U.S. households.

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NEW COMPETITION FOR HULU?

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Hollywood Reporter
Time Warner and Comcast Corp. are pushing ahead with a plan to make big cable network shows available online to existing cable subscribers shortly after their first airing. The two industry giants unveiled a set of guiding principles for what TW has dubbed “TV Everywhere” Wednesday morning and announced a national technical trial of what Comcast will name its “On Demand Online” service starting with 5,000 customers in July. The non-exclusive service is free of additional charges to Comcast subscribers. TW and Comcast hope the deal will bring other content and distribution players to the table to adopt the approach.

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“THE PHONE” PREMIERS TONIGHT ON MTV

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Seattle Weekly
“The Phone”, Justin Timberlake’s “reality” game show that involves a sinister foreign voice and seemingly death-defying dares premieres tonight with an episode set in Seattle. (You may recall how MTV blew up a car on Alki for the show.) It will also feature a Gig Harbor native who has been trying for years to fulfill his dream of appearing on an MTV reality show. Mr. SexyBack is an executive producer, so you won’t see him on screen. His explanation of the show “we take four real, live people…and thrust them into physical and mental nightmare. And we get to watch what happens.”

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